Regina citizens honour residential school students on Orange Shirt Day

EFN Staff | October 02, 2017

Members of the Regina community gathered downtown to honour residential school survivors and those who did not make it home by wearing orange t-shirts on September 29th. Treena Amyotte who is the Diversity Talent Sourcing Specialist for Farm Credit Canada (FCC) helped organize the event by collaborating with various partnering organizations who contributed and participated in the event.

“This is a perfect way to take action on the Calls to Action and educate people on residential schools,” said Amyotte. “That’s what we wanted to do was to bring people together, that was part of our goal.”

Mayor of Regina Michael Fougere said the event was important for everyone to remember and understand the meaning behind Orange Shirt Day.

“It’s important that [we’re] here to talk about the impact of residential schools on our Indigenous communit,” he said. “What we’re doing as a community to heal from that so this a healing process that we’re going through.”

There were over 100 people in attendance with a lot of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people wearing orange t-shirts. Walkers met at the City Square Plaza in Victoria Park where they heard from various guest speakers. Afterwards, they proceeded to walk close to 40 minutes down Broad Street south and back north on Albert Street meeting back in Victoria Park ending the event with a round dance.

“The discussion doesn’t end here. If you don’t know about Truth and Reconciliation you can go to the TRC’s website and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. There are resources and materials to share with your colleagues and your family and keep having that discussion,” said Amyotte.